


An Open Window and a Closed Door

by BlackStormsShadow (orphan_account)



Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, Death, Depression, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-07
Updated: 2013-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-09 08:11:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/453267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BlackStormsShadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Take my Love. Take my Land. Take me where I cannot Stand.</em><br/>Loki had one friend that stuck by him throughout his time in Asgard, but no one else could see him. A soul taken from Niflheim by Hel and put into his 'care'.<br/>When Frigga turns to protect him from Odin's punishment, Howard is the only one who worries about Loki, not the harm he could do, like everyone else.<br/>Loki's life is swept out from under his feet in <em>moments</em> and now ... now he can't remember anything.<br/>He's just lucky that some Texan's are nice people, and Pepper has a heart<br/><em>Eventual FrostIron</em><br/><em>Originally written for freakishlytallmoose on tumblr</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapter is during the movie 'Thor'

_When the somber melody of his Cello is lost in the whirling winds of Asgard, Loki goes back inside._

_Each time, he glances at the lost soul in the other room, trapped here until Hel finds a use for him.  
He's was a human, Loki remembers something about how his name was Howard ... Stark?  
He remembers something about how Howard also has a son.  
How could he forget, he's constantly complaining about him, his failures, his achievements._

_It reminds Loki all too much about his own father._

_"He used to listen to music like that" The soul's voice drifted through the walls.  
"I beg your pardon?" Loki glances at him, packing the wooden instrument back into it's case.  
"My son" The soul replied.  
"Oh, of course, how could I forget? He's all you ever talk about" Loki murmured exasperated.  
"When he was younger, he used to listen to music like that. He found it ... relaxing" the soul looked ... upset.  
"I never told him how good he was. I never told him what was in my heart" the soul said.  
"And what is in your heart?" Loki sighed wearily._

_These conversations were so very tedious._

_"Pride. I never told him I was proud of him" The soul replied, staring at the ground.  
"Odin's never told me he was proud of me, why should you be any different?" Loki growled, striding across the room to collect his helmet._

_"Now, If you'll excuse me, I have a coronation to attend and a realm to destroy" Loki settled the helm on his head and strode out to meet with Thor._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the events of 'The Avengers' Loki is put to Trial in Asgard.  
> Sadly this means that Odin is Judge, Jury and Executioner ... but isn't that always the way?

"You have disgraced our people, You have disgraced this Kingdom" Odin was yelling, therefore Loki wasn't listening.  
Loki and his mind had this agreement, when anyone yells at you or talks _at_ you, tune out. Simple as that.  
Also it didn't help that Mr. I-Talk-Too-Much was hovering not too far away.

"You have brought this shame upon your self and in turn a burdon has been put upon my should-" Odin had been speaking (yelling), Loki hadn't been listening, so he didn't care when he cut him off.  
"Have you come to see the fallen Prince burn?" Loki asked mockingly, his voice filtering through the halls and somehow, even though much quieter, flowed over Odin's booming voice.  
"I was wondering what was happening" the soul replied as he made his way through the court.  
"Well, by all means, enjoy the show" Loki turned back to Odin, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.  
Odin near flared with rage.

"You will be banished into the Silence! Where no one can find you, and no one can save you."  
"Yes yes, I figured as much" Loki's body seemed to relax knowing the soul was there, watching.  
It was as though he were a comfort, and luxury that Loki could afford.  
He shrugged off the sentance, it wasn't much for him.  
Odin had already broken him down, taken his children, killed them in punishment for him. He really couldn't care less any more.  
His heart was broken and his mind shattered.  
They were his _family_ , and his 'father' had taken them from him even when he knew the truth.

"No" Frigga stepped down from the alter as they paraded Loki through the golden city, chains and shackles hanging off him, binding him to his keepers.  
"I will not allow this" she whispered, summoning her magicks.  
" _With this life I take your mind, I craft it to my own design. With my heart you are reborn, I place you where you belong in this form_ " Frigga muttered the enchantment over and over again, crafting and reshaping Loki's memories, breaking them down, making them new.  
Changing him completely.

White light swirled around the Jotunn runt's body, screams erupted from his throat as Frigga fought back tears.  
"You will always be my son. I will always protect you" she whispered, white magicks engulfing him, sucking the life out of his body, re-crafting his life's thin thread.  
" _I make you new, sweet child of mine. You'll be reborn, but you'll remember with time _" she watched the soul that had interrupted the court racing over the Loki's collapsing, convulsing body.__  
The pain burned her heart.

As the light engulfed him, Frigga fell to her knees, drawing from her own soul to recreate her broken child.

"I love you" she whispered as he dissolved, the light drawing him away, through time and space, through all the Nine Realms, placing him somewhere _safe_.

Frigga was left breathless, and the last thing she remembered was the soul staring at her, shock and disbelief radiating off his spirit.

" _What did you do?_ " the words followed her into the darkness.

~oOo~

Loki screamed in agony, the magicks burning at a black soul and a broken heart.  
He felt himself fall to pieces, being drawn apart and put back together, built up and pulled down over and over again with every second the magicks flared.

He watched the soul approach him, cautious and hesitant.  
"Don't touch me" He gasped through the pain, for only Howard's soul to hear.  
"This is for the best" he choked on his words, tears streaming down his cheeks.  
He glanced over at Frigga as he disappeared.

The soul's words " _What did you do? _" followed him into the darkness.__

~oOo~

He felt himself being placed somewhere.  
He felt as though he were floating, but his bare feet touched solid ground under their soles.  
"Loki" Frigga's voice filtered through the air around him. "I could not let him hurt you again my son" she said, her voice was broken as it began to fade away.

"Wait!" Loki called into the darkness. " _Why?_ Why would you do this?" He called out, voice being swallowed by the nothingness.

"To _save_ you" the reply came as his vision swelled and he was thrown against solid ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki's on Earth now, but with no memories, he can't find a problem with that ...

His head was spinning as he tried to push himself up.  
"Don't you move you yellow bellied freak! I gots my gun on you!" the Texan accent flowed into his brain as he tried to think.  
Nothing came out right when he tried to speak so he just slumped back down against the ground.  
"You lucky it ain't loaded though" The man above him laughed, leaning the riffle against the barn door.

"Come on kid, let's get you up" the man extended a hand to help him and Loki took it.  
"What's you're name kid?" The farmer glanced over his clothing, plaid shirt and torn jeans. "And where'd you shoes go?" the man looked up at him.  
"I-I don't know ... to both of those questions" the boy surprised himself with his accent.  
 _'I'm British?'_ Loki placed a hand over his mouth.

"I'm ... terribly sorry, but I don't seem to remember"  
"'Member what?" the farmer looked at him, eyebrow cocked.  
"Anything really" Loki replied.  
"So ... you dunno your name kid?" the man looked at him, sizing him up.  
"No" Loki hung his head, his hands drawing together and wringing against each other.  
"Huh. Here, Come wit' me" The man ushered him out of the barn.

In the fading daylight, Loki could clearly see the man.  
He wasn't short, but he wasn't tall.  
He was getting on in his years, Loki could tell that much.  
His hair was already graying, his beard was rough cut, but his eyes were young and cheery.

If anything, that youth in his eyes intrigued Loki rather than irking him.

The man walked with a slight limp, the left side mostly, his skin was starting to hang off his muscles, only slightly though, as much as you would expect from a 50-year-old man maybe.  
He had a squarish face and he looked as though, back in the day, he was a burly man, but the muscles now old and worn.  
Loki felt a familiar connection to this man, like he knew him, but he couldn't place where from.  
"Evangeline!" The old man called into the house.

Loki admired the old brick masonry and the wooden floor boards.  
The elderly man's limp seemed to make the wood creak ever so slightly.  
Loki couldn't help the warm smile that came to his lips.

When he looked back up at the man he was greeted with a toothy grin, the young blue eyes were bright and warm.

He felt like he belonged here, he felt like somehow this was home but these people didn't know him so all thoughts along that trail were swept away.

"She's my wife" The man grinned, but it was _so_ happy, yet so _private_. Loki felt as though he'd intruded on something he shouldn't have.  
"Jeremiah, you know better than to call me when I'm cooking din-" A woman, a similar age to the man stopped dead in her tracks, halfway up the hall.  
Her gaze was locked on Loki and now he really felt like an intrusion.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I meant to fall into your barn" Loki smiled, but it was sad and he could feel the emotions coming off him in waves.  
"Oh dear! You look terrible, come in here, sit in front of the fire, you look like death itself" The woman didn't have an accent like the man's, Jeremiah (Loki committed that name to memory), it was less pronounced, more like that of an North, possibly East Coast, American.  
It had the Texan lilt though, and the tone was so familiar.

An image of a red haired woman came to mind.  
He remembered this woman, but he remembered her with fear in her eyes.

Loki mentally shook away the imagery and followed Evangeline.

Evangeline cornered him into a chair in front of a lit fire.

It was barely Autumn, but as the sun went down, the farmers knew it would get mighty cold.

"What's your name boy?" she smiled at him, pouring steaming hot water from a kettle into a mug and passing it to him.  
"I-I don't know" Loki replied, taking the cup hesitantly.  
"You don't know your own name?" The woman's voice seemed humored in a warm, motherly way.  
"No" Loki replied as she draped a woolen blanket over his shoulders.

"Thank you" he murmured, grateful for the warmth.

"Well, I can give you one for now if you'd like, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like being called boy anyway" She smiled at him as she pushed another log into the fire.  
"I'm sorry for being a burden" Loki said, glancing at the mug's contents.

"It's only coffee. It won't kill you" she ruffled a hand through his hair and it fell in front of his face.  
He realized he had black, messy locks. Well, at least that was something.

"What about Patrick? Steven? No! Loren! You definitely look like a Loren" she old woman smiled as she let the names filter through the air.  
"Loren eh?" Jeremiah came limping into the room and glanced over at him.  
"Yep. I can see a Loren there" He laughed, hobbling over to his wife and staring into a pot.  
"I like 'Loren'. It's a nice name" Loki (Loren) smiled.  
"That's good" Evangeline beamed at him.

"What the 'ell is in this pot woman?!" the confused look on Jeremiah's face made Loren smile.  
"You know very well what's in that pot" Evangeline scolded.  
"Oh yea. Gruel, just like every other night" Jeremiah huffed, turning around to sit at the small dinning table.

Loren wondered into the kitchen and over to the stove.

He stuck his finger in and taste tested the food.  
He then proceeded to grab a sprig of parsley from the window box, chopping it, mechanically.  
He then added it to the pot, along with a dash of salt, a bit of pepper, and an onion after asking if either of them couldn't have anything.  
With a dazed, slow shake of Evangeline's head, Loki added them to the Gumbo and mixed it all together.  
He added a pinch of paprika and then stirred that in as well.

He swiped a spoon from the bench beside him and tasted the new dinner, smiling at the added taste.  
He dipped the spoon in again, holding his hand under it and asking Evangeline to taste it.  
The woman engulfed the spoon end in her mouth and instantly perked up.  
"That's the finest Gumbo I've ever had!" she smiled at him, warm and genuine.

For once in his life, Loki felt as though he belonged somewhere, and it was without marble pillars and golden halls.

It was an old brick house in Texas, on a farm, with a woman who spoke with him about tedious, unimportant things just to _bond_ , and a man who laughed with him, something Odin and Frigga never did.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He'll never stop being stubborn, but the warning signs came and he ignored them.  
> Loki can't seem to forgive him for that ...

It only took a couple of weeks for Loren to get settled in, but he got there in the end.

He now had an intricate understanding of the machinery and electronics of the farm (after short circuiting the house twice and getting electrocuted 4 times).  
He could pull apart and put together Forth Generation Ford F series perfectly.  
That was the most difficult truck on the whole farm, and Loren just enjoyed getting his hands dirty, knee deep in engine grease.  
The farm did have an Ford F-Series eighth generation and a Ford F-Series twelfth generation, but once Loren had added his own touches and rebuilt the car with old spare parts (and it was working again), Jeremiah let him have it (just as long as he ended up getting those crops in at harvest each year).

Loren just smiled, he loved this man like family, and Jeremiah loved him just as much.

As it turns out, Loren had this deep seated desire to know how things worked, how they ticked.  
He hoped he'd always have that itch to know everything about something.

It was a year later when Jeremiah had his first heart attack.  
Loren was kneeling by his body, sprawled out on the floor of the barn, convulsing every couple of seconds.

A moment flashed before his eyes, one of an elderly man, lying on a staircase and Loren was in the _same_ predicament.  
"Please. Help!" He could hear his own voice, and yet it wasn't his.

"Evangeline" the name tore itself from his throat, it felt like daggers.

Evangeline was driving the truck, Loren was on the back seats with Jeremiah leaning against him.  
The things that he couldn't get out before came like a flood. A flood of words and tears, of whispers and choked cries.  
He held the old man against him, willing him, with all his might, to just hold on, to stay alive until they got him to the hospital.

It was a grilling night, Loren was pacing the waiting room throughout the surgery and the hospital dorm while Jeremiah slept.  
For the first time he could remember, Loren felt _scared_.  
Not scared because the dark was creepy, or the rattlesnake just _killed his dog_ and was now headed for the house.  
He was scared because there was that slim chance he'd get hear that hacking laughter again, or see Jeremiah's toothy, and goofy, grin.

_A 'one is a hundred chance' they said._

Loren begged Evangeline for them to move somewhere closer to the hospital, the distance they had to travel could have _killed_ him.  
The woman just shook her head, no, even if she knew, deep down inside - with the little crack in her heart - that this young man she called her son ,was right.  
She knew that the distance could have killed her husband, but she also knew that he'd be a stubborn old git and never let it go.

They weren't shocked by the fifth heart attack, not really.  
Though, when the doctor said he'd need treatment for a tumor that had been developing in his brain, Evangeline let up, and they had to sell the farm.  
She gave the man a solid finger wagging when she found out that he'd been neglecting to tell them about the tumor.  
Apparently the doctors had told him about an unnatural malicious growth that appeared in his brain during the third cardiac arrest, but he'd shrugged it off and hadn't told anyone.

Suffice to say, Evangeline _wasn't_ impressed.

Loren was upset, he though Jeremiah had the heart to tell him something might have been wrong. If anything more, he felt insufficient and incompetent.

They sold the farm, just north east of Dell City, Texas, and on a whim of Jeremiah's, moved to Prescott, Arizona.  
He'd made the joke of moving to some place called 'Surprise', but the notion was shot down with an angry glare from Evangeline.

The drive was a long and painful 10 hours and Jeremiah slept most of the way as Loren and Evangeline swapped over the position as driver every hour.  
Loren was exhausted as he slumped on his bed the removalists had already put in his room.

He helped unpack the house the next morning, putting things on shelves, in draws and just making everything organised again.

It wasn't until noon when Evangeline went to check on Jeremiah.  
A heart wrenching scream echoed through the house and in moments Loren was by her side, trying to find out when was wrong.  
When he put his fingers to his father pulse his heart lurched into his throat.  
He was ... dead.

Loren called an ambulance and once again he was in the hospital, pacing the waiting room.

Evangeline believes it was the pacing and the worry that did him, but one moment Loren was furiously walking from one end of the room to the other, and in the blink of an eye, he was on the floor, completely motionless, eyes glazed over.  
That was when the pacer went in, that was the first sign, and frankly, he should have seen it coming.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki was an immortal, basically, his body clock was slowed down radically.  
> Then he was made _mortal_.  
>  Loki's/Loren's body is catching up with him.  
> Everything is beginning to show inside, his age, his organs, even if he still looks barely 25 on the outside.

It was during Jeremiah's wake when the next lapse came, the pacer gave out and once again Loren was in the hospital.  
For the next seven months, Loren was trapped between white walls; hooked up to a drip and paraded around the hospital like the experiment he was.  
He only ever went outside when a whole group of people went with him, and he was often taken back inside after ten or twenty minutes.

In the eighth month in the hospital, Evangeline moved in with her sister and her family in Los Angeles and Loren was transferred to a hospital there.  
He didn't care which one, to him it was still a prison.

By some form of miracle (because they _knew_ his lack of memory, therefore lack of education), Loren got a job as a Project Manager in a temporary set up under something-or-other Industries.  
He was given something to do every day and somehow the fact he was in a hospital didn't seem so bad, even if it still felt like he was living in hell.

His body was apparently getting better and soon he was allowed outside without people.  
He sat outside every day, even when it rained.  
He felt dead, and yet so alive at the same time.  
He always smiled painfully when the rain came.  
The water was a welcome relief, but the doctors apparently didn't like him sitting in the rain, something about getting _worse_ (but he always wondered how it _could_ get any worse).

The day he was to meet with the Industry's CEO was the day he _felt_ human.  
Miss Potts smiled at him uneasily the moment she saw him, but warmed up eventually.  
She was petite and beautiful in a very womanly way. Loren saw that. She was smart and had a beautiful smile.

When he told her this she just blushed and murmured a very quiet thank you.  
Loren began to realize that he may have been the first man to tell her this in a while.

It took a while, but soon miss Potts, or Pepper as she preferred to be called, came once every couple of days; just to check on him and see what he'd been getting done.  
Since he was confined to the hospital, he'd been getting more work done compared to practically everyone else Pepper worked with.  
Including a man called 'Tony Stark'.

The name was so familiar, too familiar and Loren never brought him up again.  
Pepper would slip it accidentally into conversation, small complaints and such, but Loren never took mind to take the seed and run with it.  
No, he quite liked miss Potts and it seemed as though talking about this 'Tony Stark' made her quite anxious and upset.  
He kept far away from that seed.

Of course, that was until Mr Stark came with her to one of their bi-weekly meetings.

He was too busy tapping away at his phone to take any notice into the meeting at first.  
That was until about Lunch when Pepper forced a plate of food into his hands and _ordered_ him to eat it.  
Loren couldn't manage to stifle the laugh that bubbled from his chest when Tony started to complain.

That was when Tony took an interest in him (that's what he says anyway).

He says it was his laugh, how soft it was, how _warm_ it was that caught his attention. Loren still has trouble believing him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Un-beta'd, all mistakes are my own ...

'Tony' continued coming to their meetings, sometimes asking question about how the project was going along and any insight Loren had to future problems, queries or questions that would arise from the research and construction. He also asked about his 'condition'. Everyone always acted like they were treading on eggshells when it came to the subject, but Mr Stark would easily as them like he didn't care about privacy.

He just ... showed up one day a month and a half later, without Miss Potts. Loki was reading over the schematics for something-or-other industries that might be Stark Industires but he gave up trying to that figure out. The electric pulses that connected his thoughts and assisted in the 'cognitive function' of his brain were apparently 'slowing down', they weren't as fast as they should be.

Tony ambled on in, smiling at the nurse and pulling a chair up beside Loren's bed. "Are you going to die?" he asked suddenly, the calm facade in place. "Why do you want to know?" Loren placed down the tablet and arched an eyebrow at 'Tony'.

"Because I have this marvellous idea" the man's hands threaded together on the bed and his head leaned against them, giving Loren his magnificent smile that could apparently by him anything in the world, as he's said before.

"If that idea somehow includes getting me out of this bed let alone out of this hospital, you are sorely mistaken in thinking I will go along with it" Apparently it doesn't buy his Loren from the way his face falls slightly.

"The art gallery of Main, I overheard you and Pepper talking about it ... you said you've never been to an art gallery before" Tony smiled slightly. "I do not _remember_ ever going to an art gallery, Mr Stark-" "Tony" and Tony interjected. " **Tony**. Please get straight to the point and tell me why you're here because I do not much like this gently hoping around the subject that everyone seems to do" Loren turned his head to face Tony properly. "There's a show tonight, the Wonders of the 18th and 19th centuries or something like that" Tony waved a hand dismissively. "You plan to go to an art show ... **you** " Loren arched his eyebrow again. " _Actually_ , I plan to drag you along with me" Tony stated a-matter-of-factly. " _Why_?" "Because I think you might enjoy it, that's _why_ " Tony said the last word mocked Loren's tone as he did.

"What was your marvellous plan to get me out of the hospital? They don't let me leave" Loren didn't argue with the plan, rather, he wanted to know this self proclaimed genius' idea. "Business meeting with the Board of Directors" Tony replied simply. "So are we going to the show or to the meeting?" he asked, slightly confused. "The show, the meeting is a cover-up" Tony continued. "What makes you think they'll let me go?" Loren asked doubtfully. "I'm Tony Stark, all I have to do is smile".

~oOo~

"I'm sorry Mr Stark, but the patient is in no condition to go with you" The doctor said for a second time. "How can you say that, he's in perfect condition, aren't you?" Tony gently laid a hand on Loren's shoulder, the winning smile to the straight-faced Doctor who was absolutely not falling for his trick. "You are lying about your intended destination Mr Stark, I can quite clearly see that" The woman replied, the boredom on her face screaming she really didn't have the time nor the patience to deal with this.

"You would let this man die in this prison without giving him a roper taste of the world" Tony's brow furrowed in mock sadness. "We don't plan to _let_ him die, Mr Stark" The Doctor replied.

"But from the reports I've read and my intimate knowledge of human anatomy for my own purposes, I'm almost certain that pretty boy here isn't going to live, you can delay the death for almost as long as you'd like, but he's going to die, there is no way to fix him, he's broken and nothing can be done" Tony stated with a solemn face, a long string of words that were barely coherent to Loren, but a string of words he could follow.

' _He's going to die_ '

"Thank you for making me feel so very important and giving my mind that sliver of hope- Oh wait ... no ... you just _crushed _that sliver of hope. Doctor, I want to go back to bed please" Loren sighed, stepping backward towards the ward and his room. "What?!" Tony starred at Loren in disbelief. "Good night Mr Stark" Both Loren and the Doctor say as the woman leads Loki back to his room, having already left it against hospital ruling with rule-breaking Tony Stark.__

~oOo~

"I want his transferred to the medical facilities here, in Stark Industries" Tony said, pacing the top floor of his Los Angeles - Stark Industries building. "We don't have the proper medical treatment for his condition Tony" Pepper stated, watching him pace from a few feet inside the room. "What even is his condition Pepper, the doctors don't even know. I can get the best of the best in here by tomorrow evening to help him Pepper" Tony held his hands out of his hair, facing her, holding them out like he knew what he was already planning to do.

"But _**why**_? _Why_ do you want to help him?" Pepper asked, carefully hiding her concern, "is he just another experiment to you?" He voice raising a hair hysterically before she purposely controls herself. Tony stares at her, disgust and contempt flaring on his face "How can you say that?!" He sternly growls. "That man is dying, no one knows why, and plan to find out" he states sternly, evidently controlling his own emotions in this argument alongside his friend.

"Is that all you plan to do?" She asks, blatantly staring at him and how he's not sure if she's concerned for him or for Loren. "What are you insinuating Pepper?" Tony asks, an odd twist to his voice and a near growl in his throat, as though he is angered by what he believes she is implying. "I'm insinuating that you have a lot more personal reasons to want him within easy access for reasons other than what you've said" She continues, standing poised now, looking down on him from her high-heeled advantage. "Reasons like what?" his voice steeling in slight anger. "You're interested in him, as a person, he's different and new and you want to know how he works" she replies, collecting her papers from the table nearby and straightening them.

"He looks like Loki" he replies after a length in time. "Loki as in the megalomaniac who tried to subjugate the world and nearly levelled Manhattan?" she sounds worried now and he'll never get over the fact of how easily the emotions in her voice change. "Yes" Tony confirms and her brows furrow in what looks like fear. "You're willing want to stick a war criminal in this building full of innocent people" her voice is slow but it's starting to sound higher in pitch. "He's already in a building full of innocent people Pepper and he hasn't done anything yet, if he's smart he'll realise that the best way to destroy the population would be to get rid of the people who know how to help you heal. Why hasn't he made a move yet? I don't know, but I don't want him around that many people" Tony states, stepping closer to her sure footedly.

"It's more than that though, you look at him the way you used to look at me Tony" she murmurs, collecting her papers against her chest. "What are you talking about?" Tony hears the change in his own voice, the slight flare of anger he hears loud and clear, so familiar from his father's voice.

"He's interesting to you as a person, not just a potential threat to humanity. You don't like the thought of him being this Loki person, but you like _Loren_ , Tony" She takes a step closer to him, he eyes visibly softening and the furrow in her brow become more sad than worried. "I don't know what you're talking about Miss Potts" he sounds mechanical, he knows. "Of course Mister Stark" she replies in turn.

She's through the door and down the hall not long after this confrontation and he's unaware of her murmuring to herself "You just don't want to admit it".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a terrible writer I know, excuse it ... it's like glee ... a story line that could be good but then it's written horribly so all thoughts along the quality of the plot is disregarded for the fact it's sheer crap


End file.
